Resistance & Resignation

SALT Galata, Istanbul
SALT Ulus and Torun, Ankara

From December 1 to 4, SALT, in collaboration with the Van Abbemuseum, will host a diverse group of artists, thinkers, curators and activists to discuss the current relation between artistic production and activism. The meetings will take place in Istanbul and Ankara.

The discussions seek to address the recent history of art and activism with a focus on Turkey and the Netherlands. Both countries have experienced radical challenges to their very diverse civil tradition as a result of the current global, hyper-tense neoliberal world system. Geopolitical conflict, accelerating environmental degradation, dramatic shifts in real estate management and city planning, and the vigorous reappearance of cultural politics, provide a charged background for artists and activists who seek to maintain or establish a sense of public sphere beyond the reach of the global market today. Situated partly in physical and partly in virtual space, contemporary activism reconfigures itself in a new environment where classical institutions are but minor nods within an endless ocean of data reordered every nanosecond by corporate, public, and civic forces. Organizing visibility and commonality within this ever-changing environment requires a new aesthetic skill-set and sensibility appropriate for a contemporary subject able to navigate the waves of data. Bringing to the fore the outlines of this contemporary subject and how one can develop civic agency is the overarching ambition of the meeting. Participants to the seminar are asked to actively engage in the discussion by offering insight, further readings or case-studies to help explore the current domain in which civic action and activism meet.

The conceptual matrix:
Forms of Resistance, between Occupation, Exodus and Engagement
Repression, Recuperation - Resilience, Resignation?
Prefiguration: Occupation, Alternative Infrastructures and Sustainable Organization (Smart Mobs, Micro-Struggles, Movement of Movements, Insurgent Subjectivities)

AGENDA:

SALT Galata, Istanbul
Workshop IV

Monday, December 1
session 1 10.00
session 2 14.30

Tuesday, December 2
session 3 10.00
session 4 14.30

Torun, Ankara
Ballıbaba Sokak No.52
Küçükesat / Ankara

Wednesday, December 3
session 5 10.30
session 6 15.30

Thursday, December 4
session 7 10.30


With the participation of Robin Celikates, Nazim Dikbas, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Vasif Kortun, Annette Krauss, Sanne Oortshuizen, Zeyno Pekünlü, Jonas Staal, Ali Taptik, and others.

The meeting is generously supported by DutchCulture, Centre for International Cooperation.